X-rays, PET, CT, MRI, IMRT and gamma-knife, radiation therapy,
arthroscopy, ultrasound, and laser surgery are well known techniques
employed in today's medical practice. Tomorrow's practice will
include nanotechnologies, intravascular robotics, cryoablation,
laser scalpel, computer diagnostics, and molecular medicine.
Perhaps not surprisingly, all originate from physics! Physics
and its discoveries have been at the forefront of medical diagnosis
and treatment since the discovery of X-rays in 1895.
This close fit is a natural consequence of the wide-ranging
implications of the discoveries of physics, the fundamental
science. With medical practice and biology becoming more quantitative
as our understanding of life's molecular processes grows, the
myriad experimental and theoretical techniques of physics will
be increasingly prominent on the leading edge of medicine and
health care.
In today's world, careers in medicine and health care abound,
covering a wide range of possibilities from clinical practice
as a physician to clinical research as an MD/PhD scientist and
non-clinical investigations as a PhD researcher, as well as
numerous professions in support of medicine. Some less familiar
professions include: Health Physics, concerned with radiation
safety, see
www.hps.org and
www.hps1.org/aahp for
information about careers and certification; Medical Physics,
concerned with the application of the concepts and methods of
physics to help diagnose and treat human disease, see
www.aapm.org
and
www.acmp.org for
information about careers and certification; Radiological Physics,
concerned with the use of radiation for therapy and diagnosis,
see
www.rsna.org for information
about careers; Biological Physics, concerned with the application
of the concepts and methods of physics to the solution of biological
problems and the understanding of biological processes, see
www.aps.org/units/dbp/
and
www.biophysics.org
for further information. Whether through research, medical
support, or medical practice, physicists serve important roles
in all aspects of the great humanitarian effort for health care.
The Department of Physics at Marquette University has teamed
up with the University's Department of Biological Sciences and
with the Biophysics Department in the Graduate School of Biomedical
Sciences at the Medical College of Wisconsin to offer three
distinct plans of study focused on careers in medicine while
earning a Bachelor of Science in Physics. All three provide
the course preparation for the Medical College Admission Test,
but each is distinctive in professional aims.
As a student in our program, you can attend the weekly Biophysics
Seminar at the Medical College (www.mcw.edu) and earn credit
at Marquette . You will learn science at the frontiers of physics
and medicine and you will meet those who are advancing the frontiers.
You can position yourself to have an edge in the competition
for placement in the Summer Program for Undergraduate Research
(SPUR, www.mcw.edu/research/student/spur/) at the Medical College.
Participation in research will open you to the excitement of
discovery and allow you to become deeply familiar with a field
and to develop distinctive credentials.
Most important, your program of studies will be steeped in the
values and personal attention that are the hallmarks of a Marquette
education.
